As it is generally known, when a Web browser issues a request to a server using the Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the server may respond by telling the Web browser to issue the request to a different server by returning an HTTP response with the HTTP response status code 302 Found. The HTTP response 302 Found response provides an existing mechanism for performing Uniform Resource Locator (URL) redirection. The HTTP 302 Found response includes a new URL in a Location header field, and instructs the Web browser to perform a second, otherwise identical, request to the new URL.
The new URL may indicate a server located in a different authentication domain from the initial server. Accordingly, when the Web browser attempts to perform the request using the new URL contained in the header of the HTTP 302 Found response, the server associated with the new URL may reject the request, for example by sending an HTTP 401 Unauthorized response. The HTTP 401 Unauthorized response is a form of authentication challenge that requires the Web browser to provide appropriate credentials in order for the request to be completed through the server associated with the new URL.